Back from Melaka

Dataran Pahlawan - Melaka Megamall, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

After attending two and a half day of workshop, I am finally back. The actually workshop was pretty good. It was basically about Clinical Epidemiology. It was designed to prepare us before we start teaching the medical students about the subject. The learning curve was steep and at the end of it all, I was pretty knackered.

Inside the MegamallAs I blogged earlier, I wished that the management invest more on the resort hotel since the potential is enormous. Maintenance was pretty lacking. A few of my coursemates actually had to change room because of the condition of the room. The last session today was basically for us to present a mock research we were doing since yesterday.

I left Alor Gajah after lunch and by 3 pm, I was already home. I took a nap right through the afternoon after that.

Last night, I drove to Bandar Melaka. It surprisingly took longer that I expected. Plus the traffic congestion and taking wrong turns, it took me a good hour to reach the parking lot at Dataran Pahlawan. The place was pretty good for a city this size. Most of the outlets were there, plus karaoke bar, multiplex cinemas and bowling alleys. There was also rows of stalls selling crafts. The actually mall was big as it stretched underground across a whole length of a field. Unfortunately, there were not many people during weekday nights. The famous Jonker Street was practically empty. There were hardly anybody at the Eye on Malacca. Surprisingly, there were more people out when I drove back than going in.

I have taken tomorrow and Friday off, so I will be taking my Mum out when I send Irfan off to school tomorrow morning.

A Famosa, Melaka

Dinner at Golfer's Terrace, A Famosa, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

I was asked to attend a "Train the Trainers" course at A Famosa, Melaka. For an early start tomorrow morning, we were asked to travel down there today. The traffic going down was surprisingly light considering today is the last day of school holidays. It took me just under 1 and a half hour between leaving my Mum's house in KL and actually rolling my luggage into my room.

The dining area at Golfer's TerraceThe Main LobbyI spend yesterday reeling about coming. I really was not keen. Hopefully, the easy journey down here signaled a good start. I was told, the course is basically about epidemiology. The attendees will be asked to teach the Medical Students in the coming few month concerning the matter. The lectures will be conducted by speakers from the Julius Center in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Checking in was smooth. I sort of like remember the place from my trip back in 2006 with the family where we rented a bungalow in the compound. That was the first real outing with Irfan. He first learned to walk here. There was also a swimming pool at the bungalow. That's where Irfan had his first outing at the pool. He has been addicted ever since.

For dinner, I walked round the block at the main reception building. That will also be the place where I will have the lectures tomorrow. The buffet restaurant is called Golfer's Terrace. The spread was pretty basic. I had some salad and spaghetti. Was rather tired anyway.

My RoomThe hotel room was also pretty basic. I have a queen-sized bed. There is no wi-fi, but luckily I got my E71 hooked up to Celcom HSDPA. The were only basic TV channels. I thought I will have some coffee before bed.

Have I gone to the Dark Side?

I spend the whole of yesterday trying to install XP on my MacBook Pro, finally succeeding by using Sun's VirtualBox. It worked a treat. No data loss and was able to get SPSS installed on it. Since I have gone that far, I decided to try Windows 7. First of all, I need to download the 2.4 GB data for the install disc. It failed to do so from my Streamyx. It kept being disconnected. The maximum speed for download was only 1Mb/s. It will take 6 hours to download the whole stuff while praying that the connection doesn't stall.

Check out the speed of the download. About 2 and half times faster than good old Streamyx. I turned the E71 into a base station connected to Celcom Broadband, and just use wifi connection to download.

Microsoft also did not help matters by insisting that we use a Javascript-based download manager to get the stuff downloaded through, and the script for obvious reasons were disabled on Safari. Luckily Firefox worked OK. I decided to use my E71 as a modem instead and haul down the data. It stalled when I try to download it straight from Microsoft's website. I searched the net and stumbled upon this. What I did was acquire a product key from Microsoft and download the program from this site with the help of Speed Download.

After another 30 minutes of installation and updating, everything was up and running. I'll let you know how everything works up.

Fire forces Australia jet to land

An Australian passenger plane with 203 people on board has been forced into an emergency landing after a fire broke out in the cockpit.

The Airbus A330, operated by Jetstar, was flying from Japan to Australia when a window in the cockpit caught fire.

The pilots managed to put out the fire before landing in Guam. Jetstar said all of those on board were unharmed.

A similar model of the Airbus, operated by Air France, crashed on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris last week.

All 228 passengers died in that incident.

The Jetstar plane was four hours into its flight to the Gold Coast in Queensland when the fire broke out.

Anyone else think this trend is worrying?

Anita bought her W980

Anita's Sony Ericsson W980, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

About two months ago, Anita dropped her Sony Ericsson C902 from the to the stairs. It did not drop straight to the bottom, but took a few lazy tumbles on the way there. The screen was shattered, but surprisingly everything was in working order. The touchscreen was still working, the speakers were still OK, buttons and all. The only problem we noticed was the camera button did become less sensitive. Since the button needed to be pressed halfway down to trigger the autofocus, that can at times prove a problem.

She was contemplating a few new models. Her last 4 phones were all Sony Ericsson, and she prefer to stick to it. She wants the speakers to sound OK, have a decent camera, but most importantly, the keypad needs to be to her liking. She tried a few and was disappointed. You probably notice that the new phone models seems to have small metallic keypads, rather than big, rubbery ones. I kept telling her to switch to a Nokia and I am sure a number of the N series should fit her bill. iPhone is definitely out of the question because it lacks any sort of keypad!

We went to a Sony shop today and sheepishly asked if we can trade in our 'worst for wear' C902. The shop only offered us RM150, which I thought was an insult. I would rather use the phone as a door stopper than give it away that cheap. They offered us the W980 at a decent price though and Anita was hooked. She did try the C905, but that model was rather too bulky for her. So W980 it is.

I had a chance to play around with the phone. True to her word, the keypad was comfortable and of a decent size - well any keypads are going to be since I now use the E71. Being a Walkman series phone, the speakers should be decent. It was not too bulky or too light. Just fits nicely in her handbag. The screen was OK but no touchscreen. The menu system was pretty standard. The phone has a clampshell form factor, and the outer screen was good. Right at the bottom of the accessory screen sits a set of navigational button, so that the Walkman function can be accessed without the need to flip open the phone.

What I am worried abut is the material used for the phone. The hinge especially is rather too plasticky for my liking. The camera is also disappointing. Even though it takes snaps of 3.2MP, the optics is just standard, rather than of the Carl Zeiss variety. It also lacks autofocus and a sort of flash! The pics were actually pretty ..... shall I say below average. In good lighting, even my E71 may be able to take a decent photo. The phone doesn't even come with a case.

Well. Personally, given a choice I wouldn't have bought the phone, but Anita seems to like it a lot. I just need to make sure she doesn't drop down the stairs this time.